Show Don't Tell: Mark 11:15-19

Instead of saying "Jesus cleansed the temple," hear the tables crash. They arrive in Jerusalem. Jesus enters the temple courts and begins driving out those buying and selling. He overturns the tables of the money changers—coins scattering, rolling across the floor. He overturns the benches of those selling doves. He won't allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. Then he teaches: "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'" The Court of the Gentiles—the only place non-Jews could worship—had become a marketplace. The chief priests and teachers of the law hear this and look for a way to kill him. They fear him because the whole crowd is amazed at his teaching. When evening comes, Jesus and his disciples leave the city. The cleansing is sandwiched between the fig tree cursing and its withering—the temple, like the tree, is fruitless.